against Richmond’s wound to further dampen the bleeding. The night air is bitterly cold but when I shiver, I’m not sure if it’s nerves or the chill that triggered it.
As Hurley briefs Junior on what happened, I have one of the other cops come over and take over Richmond’s wound management. Then I shift my attention to Colbert.
I move over to him but Hurley stops me. “Let him lay there,” he says.
“I can’t, Hurley. I’m a nurse. I have to try.”
He frowns and sighs heavily. “Fine,” he says. “But let me cuff him first.”
I wait as one of the cops puts Colbert in handcuffs and removes his utility belt. When I’m finally able to open Colbert’s jacket and shirt, I find a sucking chest wound on his right side. But he’s breathing and his pulse, though very fast, is strong.
The ambulances arrive and I turn Colbert’s care over to the EMTs. They load Colbert first and take off, then with the help of several cops, they manage to get Richmond on a stretcher and loaded into the second rig.
Hurley walks back over to me as the ambulance prepares to leave. “Are you sure you’re okay?” he asks, putting a hand on my shoulder.
I nod even though I’m trembling uncontrollably due to the cold, my nerves, and lots of excess adrenaline. Hurley takes my chin in his hand and turns my head, forcing me to look at him. “You did good, Mattie. You saved my life. You saved all our lives.”
I nod again. Then I burst into sobbing, body-wracking tears and let Hurley hold me in his strong, very capable arms.
Chapter 46
William walks into my mother’s dining room carrying his pride and joy: a perfectly browned, crisp-skinned turkey. Thanksgiving was yesterday and I have to admit I’m a little bummed that I wasn’t able to celebrate on the only day of the year when big thighs are thought to be a good thing. But it couldn’t be helped. I spent the entire holiday in debriefing sessions with detectives from the county sheriff’s office, trying to fill in the blanks about the Ackerman-Dilles-Colbert debacle.
At least most of my favorite people are here with me: Hurley, Izzy, Dom, William, and my mother. Okay, my mother isn’t really one of my favorite people but she is my mother and I’m kind of stuck with her.
Hoover is here too, and he’s hovering at our feet beneath the table, knowing that Dom and I are likely to be good for a dropped scrap or two.
William sets his piece de resistance in the center of the table, which is well laden with all kinds of other fattening goodies, and after we all ooh and aah over the turkey, we dig in like a horde of locusts. As William starts carving, the rest of us grab dishes full of food and begin the big pass-around until our plates are piled high.
Everyone, that is, except my mother, who clearly didn’t pass her appetite on to me. She takes tiny dribs and drabs of each selection while eyeing the turkey with a worried eye. “Are you sure we can’t get the Asian bird flu from eating that thing?” she asks.
“It’s an American turkey, not an Asian one, Mom,” I say, knowing I’m wasting my breath.
She sighs, shakes her head, and declines William’s offering when he tries to put a slice of the meat on her plate. William gives us all an “Isn’t she cute?” smile and continues his duties. Clearly the man is smitten.
As soon as we all have our plates loaded up, everyone but Mom digs in with gusto. She pushes her food around and eyes the rest of us with disdain.
“I don’t know how you people can eat after everything that’s happened,” she says. She drops her fork with a clatter and puts the back of her hand to her forehead. “I’m not feeling very well. Why isn’t David here?”
“He had a date,” I tell her. “Apparently he and our insurance adjuster hit it off. He’s moved on, Mom. Get used to it.” I knew something was up when David suddenly capitulated on the divorce thing. I should have known there was another woman involved; some things never change.
My mother lets out a sound of disgust, no doubt to mourn the loss of her personal family physician.
William says, “Mattie has filled us in on most of what happened, but the one thing she didn’t tell us is how Bob Richmond figured out Colbert was involved.”
“The e-mails,” Hurley explains. “There were a couple of them that seemed to reference the same material as the ones between Smith and Ackerman but they were between Smith and another, unknown e-mail address. So Richmond called the Internet provider to find out who that e-mail belonged to. Apparently Colbert wasn’t smart enough to sign up for an e-mail account using a phony ID. I’m surprised he didn’t use the Leon Lindquist name Dilles gave him like he did for the car rental.”
“How did you end up at my house with Richmond?” I ask Hurley. “I thought you were under arrest.”
“I was,” Hurley says. “The sheriff’s deputies brought me to Sorenson and turned me over to Richmond right after you and Colbert left. Richmond was about to lock me up when he got the information about the e-mail address. Once he knew Colbert was involved, it didn’t take Richmond long to fit the pieces together. He sent Junior and another cop over to the motel while he and I went to your place.”
“Thank goodness,” I say, the memory of how close I came to death making me shudder.
“Of course,” Hurley goes on, “the full extent of Dilles and Ackerman’s involvement wasn’t clear yet, but fortunately Colbert sang like the proverbial canary yesterday when they offered him a plea deal. Now he and Ackerman are likely to end up as Dilles’s prison mates. And the cops have arrested Smith, too. Between the damage to his SUV and the e-mails, they can hit him with both conspiracy charges and the attempted murder of Trina.”
“How is this Trina woman doing?” Izzy asks.
“She’s stable and they were able to save her leg,” I tell him. “Her recovery will be long and hard, but it looks like she’ll be good as new eventually.”
“Well,” Izzy says, bestowing me with a smile, “it looks like your faith in Hurley was justified after all. Congratulations on solving a very complicated case.”
“Thanks,” I say, and then I look over at Hurley. “I told you Ackerman was involved,” I say, feeling smug.
“And I told you Dilles was,” Hurley counters.
“And you were both right,” Izzy says quickly, playing mediator. “Sounds to me like the two of you are going to make a crackerjack investigative team.”
Hurley and I exchange a momentary look before we both drop our gazes to our plates.
Dom says, “I’m still a little confused on the details. This rookie cop was the one who committed all these crimes?”
I nod and swallow the glob of mashed potatoes and gravy I have in my mouth. “He was. Smith used his criminal connections to come up with a fake ID and history for Colbert, whose real name is Jonathan Haney. Colbert applied for a job at the Sorenson PD, which apparently has several openings, did his academy training, and then went to work learning all he could about Hurley. One of Smith’s prior clients taught Colbert how to pick locks and once he had that down, it was easy enough for him to break into Hurley’s house and do what he needed to do.”
I pause and give Hurley a questioning look, knowing that the next subject I want to address is a sensitive one for him. He gives me a subtle nod and then focuses on his plate of food.
“Callie was targeted right from the get-go,” I continue. “And since Ackerman knew about her past with Hurley, he got the idea to frame him for her murder, thereby taking care of Ackerman’s problem with Callie’s threatened paternity suit. Callie’s sister knew Ackerman and Callie were involved and I suspect Ackerman knew she knew. That’s why he had to have other murders occur that had no connection to him but would point the finger at Hurley. It was Ackerman who suggested that Callie investigate the police corruption thing with Hurley, telling her that he got the anonymous call. And since it didn’t raise any eyebrows for Ackerman to be calling one of his employees, the phone records for Callie’s cell didn’t raise any eyebrows, either. After killing Callie, Colbert made sure there was evidence pointing to Hurley with the hair we found in her wound, the metal fragments that were stuck in her hair, and the knife he discovered in Hurley’s boat.
“After that, it was easy enough to discover the lawsuit Mr. Minniver had with Hurley since it’s listed on the public circuit court site. Once Minniver was targeted, Colbert watched him for a few days and stole the spare key
